There have been plenty of rumors regarding a new Google Chromebook Pixel notebook for quite some time. Today, Google pulled the old Chromebook Pixel from the Play Store and replaced it with a new one.

While still retaining the same boxy design with rather sharp edges, Google has included some impressive upgrades on the hardware side. The precise dimensions of the new Chromebook Pixel are 297.7mm x 224.55mm x 15.3mm and it weighs 1.5kg. The new Chromebook Pixel has a 12.85-inch touchscreen with 2560x1700 resolution (239 ppi), 400 nits of brightness and 178 degree viewing angles, as well as multi-touch support.

The base version starts with a yet to be detailed Intel Broadwell Core i5 2.2GHz CPU, 8GB of memory and 16GB of storage. In addition to the base version, Google will offer LS version which features an Intel Core i7 CPU clocked at 2.4GHz, 16GB of memory and 64GB of internal storage. Google also added two new USB Type-C ports to the new Chromebook Pixel which can be used for charging, transferring data or even as an display output. In addition to the two USB Type-C port, the new Google Chromebook Pixel also comes with SD card reader, headphone jack and two standard USB ports, but lacks HDMI, DisplayPort or any other display output.

In addition to hardware changes, the new Chromebook Pixel also has an improved "smooth glass" trackpad and keyboard, a 720p wide-angle camera, dual-band 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 and a much better bettery that should keep it alive for up to 12 hours on a single charge, which is definitely a nice improvement. Google also noted that there are plenty of other design improvements that hides vents and such things from view.

As noted, Google made the new Chromebook Pixel cheaper so the standard model starts at US $999 while the LS one costs US $300 more, US $1,299.

While the WiFi version of the Google Chromebook Pixel has been already selling for quite some time, the LTE version was AWOL, at least until now.

Google Play store has been updated and the LTE version of the Google Chromebook Pixel will be shipping to US customers by April 8th. Of course, all good things come with a price and in the case of the Chromebook Pixel LTE the price is set at $1,449, or US $150 more than the WiFi-only version. Bear in mind that the LTE version also has 64GB or double the amount of local storage and also gets 100MB of free data per month on Verzion's LTE network.

The Google Chromebook Pixel sounds pretty good but at that price there are a lot of other options to go for.

Google has always marketed Chromebooks as cheap everyday notebooks, but it looks like it has just turned a new page by announcing its newest 12.85-inch Google Chromebook Pixel. All would be well if that new page did not look like it was taken out of Apple's textbook.

Chromebook Pixel aimes to grab some of that glory from the unbeatable but expensive Macbook Air with its 12.85-inch 2560x1700 (239 ppi) touchscreen hidden behind Gorilla Glass. As you can notice, the screen ends up with a rather strange 3:2 aspect ration designed to better fit web content and accoridng to Google's Chrome VP Sundar Pichai, this is a notebook on which you'll never ever see another pixel in your life.

Design wise, the Google Chromebook Pixel is machined from anodized aluminum and weighs 1.52kg/3.35 lbs. It measures 297.7x224.6x16.2 mm and uses some sort of "active cooling" with no visible vents.

Specification wise, the new Chromebook Pixel features a 1.8GHz clocked dual-core Core i5 CPU, Intel HD Graphics 4000, 4GB of RAM and either 32 or 64GB of SSD storage depending on the model. In case you are worried about storage, you will be happy to know that Google threw in a hefty 1TB of 3-year free Google Drive storage with every Pixel. The model with less storage will also be limited to WiFi, while the 64GB one will come with Verzion LTE, at least in the States.

It also features three microphones, 720p HD camera, custom Chrome backlit keyboard, two USB ports, mini DisplayPort output, SD card reader, WiFi and Bluetooth for connectivity (and LTE on bigger model). It features a 59Wh battery that should be enough to keep it running for up to 5 hours of active use, at least according to Google.

Now comes the bad side of the story as it is a direct competitor to the 13-inch US $1,499 MacBook Pro with Retina Display, which is by the way a much better system, the Google Chromebook Pixel starts at US $1,299 for the WiFi-only 32GB model, shipping next week, and US $1,449 for the 64GB one which will be available in early April.